Gang of four arrested for series of snatchings

The arrested were identified as Jaison (20), Magesh (20) of Semenchery, Naresh Kumar (19) from Ottiam Thoraipakkam and Saravanan (42). While Naresh is a BSc second-year student at a private college in Kelambakkam, Saravanan owns a mobile service centre in Pallikaranai.

The police seized five mobile phones and two two-wheelers. They are said to have brought the assets using the money from selling the snatched mobile phones.

The victim, Venkatesan (40), of Rani Nagar in Nanmangalam, filed a complaint with the Pallikaranai police that three young men on a motorbike snatched his smartphone while he was walking on the road. The police had also got several other complaints regarding the mobile phone snatchings in the area. When they browsed the CCTV footage, the police found three men on two bikes suspiciously roaming in the locality.

On Sunday, the police detained Jaison and based on information from him, they arrested Magesh, Naresh Kumar and Saravanan. The police said that the three of them would snatch smartphones who walk alone and sell them to Saravanan. The gang would also cut the aluminum pipes from the houses during the night and sell them for money. The police arrested and sent all of them to prison.